Part 2: Phosphoric Acid

Picky eaters love soda pop! Don’t think toddlers and preschoolers drink much pop? Soft drinks provide more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old’s diet than cookies, candies, and ice cream combined. Yikes!

More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.

Sugar, primarily high fructose corn syrup, is only one of the many health concerns with soda pop. Phosphoric acid is an additive in most soft drinks and we never hear about it.

It’s the active ingredient giving soft drinks a sharper flavor and it helps to keep the carbonated bubbles from going flat. Phosphoric acid slows the growth of molds and bacteria, which would otherwise rapidly multiply in the sugary liquid.

Improved flavor and keeping bacteria in check are good enough, but phosphoric acid robs the body of vital nutrients, as it increases the loss of magnesium and calcium in the urine. It also dissolves the calcium in enamel. Obviously, weakened enamel makes it easier for bacteria to enter the teeth, causing cavities in children.

Avah knows healthy drinks like water, milk, and fruit juice are yummy, too.

While parents may believe that sugar is the primary culprit of soft drink’s adverse effects on tooth decay, enamel erosion occurs whether the soft drink is sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. According to a report published in General Dentistry, phosphoric acid in soft drinks causes tooth enamel erosion, even when occasionally consumed.

“Drinking any type of soft drink poses risk to the health of your teeth,” said Kenton Ross, a dentist and spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry. “My patients are shocked to hear that many of the soft drinks they consume contain nine to 12 teaspoons of sugar, and have an acidity that approaches the level of battery acid,” Ross said.

With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture. Phosphorus is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis. Recent human studies suggest that girls who drink more soda pop are more prone to broken bones. Even a few cans of soda pop per day can be damaging, especially when they are consumed during the critical bone-building years of adolescence and childhood.

Dr. Bess Dawson-Huges, a bone-disease expert at the Tufts University in Boston, said, she’s especially concerned about teenage girls. “Most girls have inadequate calcium intakes, which makes them candidates for osteoporosis when they’re older and may increase their risk for broken bones today.”

The pH of most soda pop is very acidic 2.8. As I discuss in Healthy Kids and pH Levels, for health people need to eat more alkaline foods. Soda pop is a highly acidic drink which does the opposite. There is an easy solution: replace soft drinks with healthful drinks, like water, milk, and fruit juices.

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For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

Carbonated Soft Drinks
Soda Pop Part 1: High Fructose Corn Syrup

To beat the heat, we often reach for an ice-cold can of soda pop! Today, more than a quarter of ALL drinks consumed in the U.S. are carbonated drinks.

Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Even picky eaters love sodas.

Would you allow your child to eat 17 teaspoons of sugar? Never!… unless your child drinks a soda. During summer it’s easy to let down our guard, because a can of pop is so refreshing (and easy). Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets.

Ethan and John beat the heat in the sprinklers.

According to government data, carbonated drinks contribute about 10 percent of the calories in the American diet. Carbonated drinks have replaced fruit juice, milk, and even water in our daily routine. Studies have linked soda to obesity, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and even heart disease. Carbonated drinks contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). There are so many problems with HFCS that it’s hard to know where to begin. Yes, there’s a huge campaign to try to undo the negative aspects of the High Fructose Corn Syrup, but don’t be fooled.

According to the Corn Refiners Association, there has been a misunderstanding about HFCS. They say, “High fructose corn syrup meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirements for use of the term natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product and contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives.” They also say that HFCS has the same number of calories as sugar, so it’s okay to eat.

Sounds like HFCS is really a health food! Not so fast. According to physicians Mehmet Oz and Michael Roisen, high-fructose corn syrup is the worst sweetener added to our food supply. In their book, You: The Owner’s Manual, they state: “One of the biggest evil influences on our diet is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute that itself is a sugar found in soft drinks and many other sweet, processed foods. The problem is that HCFS inhibits leptin secretion, so you never get the message that you’re full. And it never shuts off gherin, so, even though you have food in your stomach, you constantly get the message that you’re hungry.”

Other studies by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Michigan have shown that consuming fructose, which is more readily converted to fat by the liver, increases the levels of fat in the bloodstream in the form of triglycerides. And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin.

Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis, who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin a hormone produced by the body’s fat cells. Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel’s research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite. “Because fructose in isolation doesn’t activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain,” he says.

Researchers are finding new problems with high fructose corn syrup. A study in Journal of the National Cancer Institutesuggests that women whose diet was high in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF, is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally occurring fructose in fruit juice combined with soda and processed food.

“The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose, Heyman says, “It can overload the intestines’ ability to absorb carbohydrate by giving it too much fructose. That can cause cramps, bloating, and loose stools.”

If you were to avoid only one sugar, HFCS would be the one! Replace sodas in your family’s diet with healthful alternatives: water, milk, 100 percent fruit juice (then dilute), homemade lemonade and fizzy drinks (half fruit juice and half carbonated seltzer water with no added sugars).

Look for Thursday’s blog: Part 2 Soda Pop: Phosphoric Acid

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

Researchers at Ohio State University analyzed government data on 6,500 children and teens, ages 2 to 18. They found the children were consuming an average of 2 cups of fruit, vegetables, and juice combined a day. French fries account for 25 percent of their vegetable intake. Someone consuming 2,000 calories a day should be eating 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of veggies a day—over TWICE the amount recorded.

Then there’s the nagging statistic that French fries compose 25 percent of children’s vegetable intake. While writing “Eat Your French Fries Vegetables,” I decided to see if the claim that a Happy Meal will last for years is true. I purchased a Happy Meal on March 3, 2009. To follow Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog, you’ll want to subscribe to the Baby Bites Ezine.

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Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog:

March 3, 2009
My newly purchased Happy Meal smells yummy and it’s very colorful. I receive a PetShop virtual pet dog in a yellow plastic doggie carry-case, along with my child-size hamburger, small fries, and a soft drink. On one side of the cardboard box the meal comes in are cutouts for a pet shop window and door. What little girl wouldn’t absolutely love it? The boy’s side of the box has a Spider-Man scene. The Spider-Man side states, “Meet the spectacular Spider-Man in McWorld at HappyMeal.com and go on your own superhero adventure!” WOW what fun. As colorful as my Happy Meal is, the food is mostly colorless. French fries are made from starchy white potatoes and a hockey puck-size brown hamburger is served on a mini-white-bread bun. There’s no lettuce, cheese, or otherwise healthful topping, just a dab of ketchup and a slice of pickle.

March 4
Happy Meal greets me as I walk into my office this morning. It’s perched on a shelf behind my desk and there is a faint smell of French fries as I enter the room. My husband is concerned about the odor. I ask, “What do ya mean?” After all it smells yummy. He says, “What about when it putrefies, decomposes, and turns rancid?” I answer, “That’s the point of my experiment. It’s NOT supposed to decompose, only a natural food would do that! If it does, I’ll move it into a glass container, to control any unpleasant smell. Then, I’ll have more to report.

March 5
Day three, my cheery Happy Meal’s yummy smell is hardly noticeable as I come into my office. I can’t help but think about the hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food. It’s even in their fries …MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk from ingesting MSG in Happy Meals. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children. Morgan Spurlock, from the movie SuperSize Me, experienced extreme headaches on his McDonald’s diet. In his movie and book, he says his health team was at a loss for the reason. It’s a shame they missed the connection to MSG. For more information about MSG, Click Here.

March 6 AM
I now own my very own McDonalds’ Spiderman toy. Yep, I went back to McDonalds and purchased the toy alone. Now I have a toy for each side of the McDonalds’ box. A toy meant for a girl and one for a boy. I was motivated to purchase the second toy, because yesterday, Kelly wrote a comment on my Facebook page after I mention the “Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog.”Kelly observed, “Sadly, with all the marketing it seems to be more about the toy.” And then offered her solution, “I often will make them a healthy lunch at home, and then go thru the drive thru and just buy the toy!”Checking my original receipt, I found my purchase of a Happy Meal cost me $3.02 (after taxes, before taxes $2.79). The toy with the Happy Meal is listed on the receipt as zero.  When I purchased the toy alone, it cost $1.69 (of course, plus tax). Using a rule-of-thumb that the cost of an item is doubled, the toy most likely cost McDonalds about 80 cents. It would be my guess the paper products (the box, napkins, and cup) were next in expense for McDonalds. That alone speaks volumes about the quality of the food.

March 6 PM
YIKES, I’m becoming a regular McDonalds’ costumer! Yes, I went back there today and purchased a second tiny hamburger. Yesterday, I realized my experiment hamburger had ketchup and a slice of pickle on it. I was afraid these two toppings would alter the result, so I went back and purchased a PLAIN tiny burger. It cost me another 89 cents, plus 6 cents tax. Now, I have a control burger without toppings, albeit three days fresher. While I was there, I checked out what it would cost to purchase a small order of fries: $1, plus 7 cents tax. That means that the FOOD and PAPER portion of my original Happy Meal cost me $2.02 and the toy $1.00.

March 7
You’d think at least the ketchup your child is dipping her French fries in and the dab on the hamburger is healthy, after all it’s made of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a super food, right? Not so fast. Ketchup is usually one-third sugar (unless you purchase a healthy brand at a whole foods store).The ingredients on the McDonald’s Fancy Ketchup read: “Tomato concentrate (not whole tomatoes), distilled vinegar, High Fructose Corn Sweetener, Corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavorings.” When you add the High Fructose Corn Sweetener with the Corn syrup, most likely sugar will be the real first ingredient. Ketchup is sugar and worst kind of all. Click Here for more info on High Fructose Corn Sweetener.

March 8
It’s day five, and somehow I don’t feel consoled by McDonald’s website reassurances: “McDonald’s offers a range of menu options to help meet your family’s nutrition needs. When it comes to eating with your kids at McDonald’s, you can feel good knowing that our Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals contain important nutrients that growing kids need. Many of the foods we serve at McDonald’s are the same trusted brands you might purchase for your family at your local grocery store.

“My Happy Meal looks pretty much the same as the day I purchased it. The only difference I can tell is the ketchup and the pickle are being absorbed into the mini-white bun. Of course, the plain burger I purchased looks the same, so do the fries. If this were real food, there should be some decomposition. In Morgan Spurlock’s (Super Size Me) McDonald’s experiment found fries are turning black from decomposition by 2 weeks. But, McDonald’s fries never did decompose. That can’t be food, for food to nourish your body it needs to decompose.

Could the lack of decomposition be because of trans fat? I thought McDonalds said they no longer use trans fat, but according to the McDonlds website their French fries are prepared in hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Any hydrogenated oil is a trans fat! Trans fat is created when a vegetable oil is overheated. Restaurants use their frying oil for a week. It’s heated over and over again. Trans fats can’t release any useful mediators. Their shape keeps them from being recognized by enzymes. Explains a lot, don’t you think.

March 9
How many times have I heard “It’s cheaper to eat out than cook at home“? I don’t know maybe a million! I don’t get it. A Big Mac Meal costs $5.39 and a Happy Meal, $2.79, plus tax. For a family of four that’s $16.36 or a mom and one child $8.18; not including taxes. Not a bargain when you think what that could purchase. Last Spring, I worked out a food budget for two people on food stamps. ( Click Here for my Food Stamp Budget blog.) With a meager food stamp budget of $300 a month for two people, about $10 a day you can feed two people whole foods. One trip to McDonalds would cost almost as much as a day’s groceries. If you ask me, that’s NO bargain.

March 10
Today, is day 7. My Happy Meal still looks happy. The fries haven’t changed a bit, although the French fry smell is faint. The hamburger itself looks like it did on day one. The ketchup and slice of pickle have dried. The mini-white bun is now hard and has split. If you look closely at my original photo at the top of this blog, you can see a vertical crease in the bun. It looked as if it had been squished or bent before the patty was placed on it. The split is in the crease. (My second PLAIN Burger, purchased three days after is still perfect.)

March 12
What is a natural flavor, exactly? McDonald’s says their fries contain a natural flavor. A substance can be natural, but it may violate a religious or dietary restriction or it may cause allergic reactions in some people. It turns out that today, “natural” can mean just about anything. The natural flavor in McDonald’s fries is beef flavor containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.

March 15
The Happy Meal was launched in 1979, by 2003 the Happy Meal accounted for 20 percent of all meals sold at McDonalds! It was pure marketing geniuswhen Ronald McDonald became their mascot. In commercials, Ronald McDonald inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland. He has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. Our kids have been taken captive, by a clown. According to Barna Research, kids ages 2 to 7 watch an average of 25 hours of television a week and see about 40,000 television ads per year. It’s no surprise Ronald McDonald was number two on a list of the most recognizable people in the world. This, of course, relates directly to our kids’ addiction to junk food!

March 16
My Happy Meal is 12 days old. I’m taking it off my shelf, just for a little peek to see how it’s doing. Ya’d think that there would be some sort of decomposition going on by now. I don’t see any…nope none at all. My Happy Meal is still looks perky.

March 19
It’s too bad that even in the midst of the recession, parents are finding the financial wherewithal to keep their kids supplied with Happy Meals. February’s sales were up 5.4 percent above last year. January’s global comparable sales leaped 7.1 percent. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if parents cooked whole foods at home? No only would they save during these tight financial times, but their kids would be healthier, too.

March 30
Do you know the:
1) percentage of potatoes which end up French fried: 22
2) age when a toddler first eats a French fry: 6 mo
3) percentage of toddlers who eat French Fries everyday: 21

March 31
I’m taking my Happy Meal on its first field trip. It’s going to be my show-and-tell for tonight’s presentation to preschool moms in Littleton, Colorado. No one will believe my Happy Meal is one day shy of four week’s old! It looks as good as it did on day one.

April 10
You remember the jingle, “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” What’s in the  Big Mac® special sauce: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). CONTAINS: WHEAT, EGG AND SOY.
Looks like sugar is the number one ingredient in the Big Mac® Sauce.  (And by the way, the Happy Meal purchased on May 3 looks as good as it did on day one.)

April 29
Since I began this blog, I’ve written another post about Monosodium Glutamate. MSG is a common ingredient in McDonald’s food.  Click Here to read “Hidden Toxin in Food.” Unappetizing as it is, my Happy Meal is just as perky as the day I bought it, nearly two months ago!

June 3
How sad are Americans? Despite all the cautions about fast food, a recent poll found that 44 percent of Americans say they like the taste of fast food too much to give it up. Greg Chu, senior vice president of health care for Synovate in North America, says people in the USA have “a love-hate relationship” with fast food. “We love the convenience. We love the taste. We love the assurance that you can count on it. But we know it’s not good for us.”

December 14
I wish I could say that my Happy Meal has changed in some way. But it looks pretty much the same nine months after I purchased it. The bread is crusty. That’s all!

March 3, 2010
Read about my Happy Meal’s first birthday, CLICK HERE.

Click Here for a synopsis of “Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater”

It’d been a while since I last ate at a salad and soup restaurant. Dick, my husband and I used to enjoy eating at Sweet Tomatoes, another salad/soup restaurant in our area. The choices are numerous and you can eat as much as you like. My mom was a picky eater and loved soup and salad restaurants, because she could choose whatever she wanted to try and if she didn’t like it, she could go back for something else.

Grace and Elijah are happy to hear
some restaurants are trans fat free.

I stopped eating at salad and soup restaurants, when I read the information on the additives, especially trans fat, that were found in their food items. I was surprised when I saw trans fats were in more than bakery products. They were in things you wouldn’t normally expect, like creamed soups. So, I was happy to see that Souper Salad posted signs stating they were “trans fat free.”

Later, I checked out the Souper Salad website and contacted their “food scientist” (I wasn’t sure what a food scientist is, so I checked it out online. A food scientist works in research and development of food processing companies. They analyze food content.), just to be sure. This is the reply I received from Karen Schroeder, their food scientist:

“Regarding fats:
Gingerbread uses palm oil—0 trans fat
Blueberry bread uses palm oil—0 trans fat
Bread-sticks uses soybean oil—0 trans fat
Cornbread uses partially hydrogenated corn and cottonseed oil—0.11 grams / square. (This is a trans fat.)

The government allows us to claim 0 trans fat if a serving size has 0.5 grams per serving or less. Some items contain naturally occurring trans fat so it would be impossible to claim 0 trans fat for everything without this government disclaimer.”

While I was at it, I asked about MSG. This answer was also encouraging:

“There is one product at Souper Salad that contains MSG. It is in trace amounts in our Jalapeno Cheese Sauce that is found near the baked potato section of our bar.”

Then I asked about one of the worst sweeteners, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). I am happy to say that there weren’t a lot of items on this list. As you might expect, HFCS is in some of their desserts. This is the list of products containing HFCS:

“Caramel Topping
Ketchup
Oreo Cookies
Crushed Pineapple Topping
Chocolate Pudding
Fruit Smoothies
Chocolate Syrup

Our breads do not contain high fructose corn syrup.”

The only way you’ll ever know what you’re eating, is to check out your favorite restaurant yourself. Obviously, if you or a family member is sensitive to other food additives, eating out is more of a challenge. Today, most restaurants have websites offering nutritional information. Understand, that you probably will have to email their “food scientist” from their web page to get the information you really need.

Learn more about trans fat, CLICK HERE.
Learn more about High Fructose Corn Syrup, CLICK HERE.

Sugar is produced from sugar cane or sugar beets. In the refining process all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, and other beneficial nutrients have been stripped away. Simple sugars cause a drop in the ability of white blood cells to engulf bacteria, resulting in the suppression of the immune system.

People develop a craving for sweet tasting foods, especially little picky eaters. Skinny picky eaters may grow up to be overweight, as their favorite foods often have added sugars.

Several studies have shown an increase in the number of children diagnosed with type two diabetes. Until recently, only 1 to 2 percent to of children with diabetes had type two. Reports indicate up to 45 percent of children with newly diagnosed diabetes do NOT have type one. Type two diabetes is directly connected to the processed sugary foods people eat and is avoidable.

The average American consumes approximately 2½ pounds of sugar a week!
Kids eat more sugar then their parents.

Sugar is seductive as it may take years before sugar makes you overweight, ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, and throws your endocrine system out of whack. Sugar is included in most processed foods. It’s in everything from soup, to cereals, to ketchup, to lunch-meat.

In my book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater,” there are practical solutions on how to avoid sugar. First, you must become familiar with all it’s aliases. Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store Now! Click Here

Sugar is listed on the nutrition label under 40 different names!

Various Names For Sugar Commonly Found in Processed Foods:

• Amaske (brown rice)
• Barley malt (grain)
• Beet sugar (root)
• Brown rice syrup (grain)
• Brown sugar
• Cane juice
• Confectioners’ sugar
• Corn sweetener (grain)
• Corn syrup (grain)
• Date sugar (fruit)
• Dextrose
• Fructooliosaccharides (fruit)
• Fructose (fruit)
• Fruit juice concentrate (fruit)
• Galactose
• Glucose
• Granulated sugar
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) — If you were to avoid only one sugar, HFCS would be the one! According to physicians Mehmet Oz and Michael Roisen, high-fructose corn syrup is the worst sweetener added to our food supply. In their book, “You: The Owner’s Manual…,” they state: “One of the biggest evil influences on our diet is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a sugar substitute that itself is a sugar found in soft drinks and many other sweet, processed foods. The problem is that HCFS inhibits leptin secretion, so you never get the message that you’re full. And it never shuts off gherin, so, even though you have food in your stomach, you constantly get the message that you’re hungry.”
• Honey (natural)
• Juice concentrate
• Lactose
• Licorice Root
• Maltodextrin (corn syrup solids)
• Malted barley (grain)
• Maltose
• Maple sugar (natural sweetener)
• Molasses (natural sweetener)
• Powdered sugar
• Rice Syrup & Yinni Syrup
• Raisin juice (fruit)
• Raisin syrup (fruit)
• Raw sugar
• Sorghum syrup
• Stevia—Stevia is really a healthy sweetener. It’s a herbal sweetener that’s two to three hundred times sweeter than sugar and no calories. It’s presently sold in the U.S. as a dietary supplement, although it has been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years in Latin America, Japan, and Asia and now in Europe.
• Sucanat
• Sucrose
• Sugar cane
• Turbinado sugar
• White sugar

Update on Sugar Alcohols and Polyols

Polyols include: Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysates (HSH), Isomalt, Lactitol, Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol, and Xylitol.

Polyols are slightly better than artificial sweeteners, but in light of the following information, I would strongly caution parents in purchasing foods for your children with Polyols listed in the ingredients.

Polyols are made from sugar. Polyols average 50 percent fewer calories than sugar. Although, they can have adverse side effects: dehydration, equilibrium loss, vitamin and mineral depletion, and malnutrition. Polyols can adversely effect the digestive system with bloating, gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, and anal leakage at 1 1/2 teaspoons a day. Although in some individuals (possibly more so in children) these side effects may occur at a lower level.

Children have immature digestive systems it’s best to avoid Polyols as well as artificial sweeteners. I would NOT recommend Polyols for children, even though you’ll find them in candy, chewing gum, chocolate, baked goods, cough drops, cold medicines, mouthwashes, and ice cream.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.